In drilling wells for oil and gas exploration, understanding the structure and properties of the associated geological formation provides information to aid such exploration. Measurements in a wellbore, also referred to as a borehole, are typically performed to attain this understanding. However, the environment in which the drilling tools operate is at significant distances below the surface and measurements to manage operation of such equipment are made at these locations. In addition, it is important to monitor the physical conditions inside the borehole of the oil well, in order to ensure proper operation of the well. In turn, the data collected via monitoring and measurement is transmitted to the surface for analysis and control purposes.
Electrical cables have been investigated for high speed communications to and from downhole tools. However, use of electrical cables for such communication has drawbacks due to limitations with information bandwidth of electrical cables. Optical fibers have been investigated for high speed communications to and from downhole tools to overcome the information bandwidth limitations of electrical cables. For real-time communications of downhole measurements while drilling, there has been no realistic electrical cable solution, to date, due primarily to the large inductance and capacitance of such cables. Also, there has been no realistic optical fiber cable solution, to date, due primarily to the fact that near perfect optical alignment must be employed for low signal loss. There is ongoing effort to develop systems and methods that can allow for more flexibility without significant loss of precision in relatively high speed communication from and to tools located downhole at a drilling site.